Egyptian TV News Uses Video Game Footage As Proof Of Russian Precision Strikes Against ISIL

from the game-theory dept

Tue, Oct 20th 2015 3:13am — Timothy Geigner

Attention news agencies of Planet Earth. This is an all points bulletin for your benefit: stop passing off video game footage as real-life-happenings. Yes, what seems like a thing that shouldn't be able to happen has actually happened several times in the past, from video game footage passed off as a terrorist attack to state news agencies passing off video game footage as a potential threat to a nation's enemies. Some nations appear to even be trying to take advantage of it all, such as when Russia tried to sucker world news groups into thinking that it had found proof that America is arming Ukrainians with video game footage of a weapons cache. And, yet, it keeps happening.

The latest case is an Egyptian news agency bizarrely using footage from a Russian-made video game, Apache: Air Assault, published by Activision and featuring english-speaking characters, to proclaim Russian dominance against ISIS in Syria.

Now, I realize there are cultural and linguistic barriers here, but it shouldn't be terribly hard to understand that the voices in that footage are speaking English. And, though video games are becoming more realistic by the day, the footage and audio here is still video-game-ish enough that it's fairly easy to identify it as such with just a few minutes' watching. And yet, anchor Ahmed Moussa had this to say before airing the footage.

"Yes, this is Russia; this is the Russian army. This is Putin," he said. "This is the Russian federation. Are they confronting terrorism? Yes, they are. The Americans were too soft on ISIL. The US has been there for a year and a half, and we have seen not one bullet from them, nor have we seen anyone getting killed by them."

I'll give Moussa points for originality. After all, it's not every day you hear lamentations from the Middle East that Americans just aren't killing enough people.

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Filed Under: egypt, footage, isis, news, russia, syria, video games

31 Comments

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Agonistes (profile), 20 Oct 2015 @ 3:54am

Does this mean the DirectX API will now be classified as a trade-restricted US munition?
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Oct 2015 @ 4:09am

Oh, look, you just sold me a game.
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Capt ICE Enforcer, 20 Oct 2015 @ 4:59am

Transparency
Please realize with the government's attempt for increased transparency all video footage from government officials are now a black screen with only a couple pixels being unredacted. News agencies have no choice but to use video game footage as big Hollywood corporations and game corporations are the only ones authorized access to such TOP Secret information.
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beech, 20 Oct 2015 @ 5:27am

the US
They haven't seen any shooting from the U.S. ? They must not have been monitoring Battlefield 3 very well...
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That One Guy (profile), 20 Oct 2015 @ 5:32am

Amateurs...
They should get some tips from the North Korean government on the proper use of video-games and photoshop. Now those guys know how to put forth a well crafting piece of hilariously bad propaganda.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Oct 2015 @ 5:37am

I wonder if they'll get DMCA'd and a copyright notice.
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Agonistes (profile), 20 Oct 2015 @ 5:52am

If the US military sold premium subscriptions and hosted engagements on Twitch it would make our defense budget way more manageable.
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 20 Oct 2015 @ 5:52am

Re:
Fair use. Unwitting self-parody.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Oct 2015 @ 6:17am

Re: the US
And Halo 5 is just around the corner. The guy is going to have a heart attack when he sees that.
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Mason Wheeler (profile), 20 Oct 2015 @ 7:07am

Re: Re: the US
Oy. I seriously don't get how Halo ever became a thing. I mean, the first was maybe worth playing, simply because it was pretty much the only thing even worth playing at all on the original XBox, and so if you bought one expecting a bunch of awesome content this was the one thing that could justify the purchase, but it was nothing new or groundbreaking or innovative, and 2 and 3 were pretty much bog-standard FPSs. (I didn't even bother with anything after 3...)

So what's the deal with Halo?
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Oct 2015 @ 7:14am

now we know why Adam Sandler is their national hero
After all, he's busy saving them in Pixels
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Richard (profile), 20 Oct 2015 @ 7:27am

Graphics Gap
footage from a Russian-made video game

Ah - you misunderstand the propaganda. This is not Russian propaganda about Russian militiary success - rather it is Russian propaganda that they have now closed the so called "Graphics Gap"*

* When Reagan's SDI (often known as star wars) was being promoted many people noted that the promotional videos demonstrated US superiority in Computer Graphics - if not in actual military hardware.
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minijedimaster (profile), 20 Oct 2015 @ 7:56am

Re: Re: Re: the US
So you questioned whether or not the first one was even worth it and you still went on to play 2 AND 3. Sounds like you were part of the problem encouraging game makers to continue releasing mediocre games/sequels since you kept buying them.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Oct 2015 @ 7:59am

This can't be an Activision game because the video has not been taken down via the DMCA.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Oct 2015 @ 8:04am

Re: the US
I remember when Doom first came out ...
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nasch (profile), 20 Oct 2015 @ 8:18am

Re: Re: Re: the US
News flash: not everyone finds the same things fun. Many people have fun playing Halo games. You are perhaps not one of them, and that's OK. Many people have fun playing Call of Duty. I'm not one of them, and that's OK too. Perhaps I don't enjoy whatever video game you like. The great thing is, there are so many games that everyone can find something they like, and we can all have fun.
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nasch (profile), 20 Oct 2015 @ 8:22am

I didn't think it was that obvious. In black and white and fairly poor quality, I think that could pass for the real thing to a lay audience. The English dialog gives it away to anyone who speaks Russian or English, but I don't know how different they sound to an Arabic speaker.
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Mason Wheeler (profile), 20 Oct 2015 @ 8:30am

Re: Re: Re: Re: the US
Actually, it was my job, not by choice. (No, seriously. I spent some time as a video game tester. Got to play some really fun games before they ever came out... and a bunch of not so fun ones too.) I never actually owned an XBox, any generation.
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jupiterkansas (profile), 20 Oct 2015 @ 8:36am

Re:
You should go into journalism then.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Oct 2015 @ 8:39am

Re: Re: Re: the US
Really? You just can't imagine why something became popular? Not even a guess? Do still ponder how Apple ever got big?
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Oct 2015 @ 8:47am

...to proclaim Russian dominance against ISIS in Syria...

Are you sure this isn't a psyop? Maybe the Russians aren't doing so well. How would we know?
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Oct 2015 @ 9:45am

If mainstream media lie, manipulate, or are as stupid as this, WHAT ELSE do they lie, manipulate, or are as stupid, in

Yes, i heard it
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PRMan, 20 Oct 2015 @ 10:10am

Re: Re: Re: Re: the US
I love playing the Lego games, especially the movie adaptations.

"Real" gamers tell me that I shouldn't like them.

Hey, I like mindless G-rated violence and collecting little coiny studs, OK?
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PRMan, 20 Oct 2015 @ 10:12am

Re:
I speak English, but I'm pretty sure I could tell the difference between Arabic and Hindi.
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nasch (profile), 20 Oct 2015 @ 10:28am

Re: Re:
I speak English, but I'm pretty sure I could tell the difference between Arabic and Hindi.

Unless you assume that the relationship between English, Arabic, and Hindi is the same as the relationship between Arabic, English, and Russian, I don't see how that's relevant. And that sounds like a tenuous assumption at best. The problem is the only really clear evidence would be from someone who speaks Arabic but not English (or Russian) and we're not likely to get that around here!

To be clear, this is shoddy journalism either way and should be called out. I'm just not convinced it's as brain dead as Tim is making out.
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Niall (profile), 20 Oct 2015 @ 12:17pm

Re: Re: Re:
There's also the fact that quite a lot of the world speak at least a few words of English, so may be familiar enough with it to spot it at least...
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nasch (profile), 20 Oct 2015 @ 1:07pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
There's also the fact that quite a lot of the world speak at least a few words of English, so may be familiar enough with it to spot it at least...

Very true, and I'd guess the people watching a news show would be the ones more likely to know some English.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2015 @ 12:32am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
The reporters are even more likely to know some English, just so they can keep up with what the US is up to.
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PaulT (profile), 21 Oct 2015 @ 12:45am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: the US
I have a soft spot for those as well. Sometimes, I want a heavy, plot-driven adventure or an epic battle. Sometimes I just want to smash Lego blocks for 20 mins.
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nasch (profile), 21 Oct 2015 @ 7:44am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
The reporters are even more likely to know some English, just so they can keep up with what the US is up to.

Yes, there's no excuse for them.
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Harbin, 8 Jun 2016 @ 11:59pm

Good
I feel the the TV Channels should be careful about what they are telecasting. So this type of issues won't arise again. Like Hindi TV Channels in Netherlands are also doing some type of mistakes in Indian TV Channel history.
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